


Bridge Over Troubled Water

by jumpitorloseit



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Casseroles, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Loretta is kind of a badass in a quiet way, after 75, chosen family, the mom friend and the dad friend have a silent understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 04:58:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16527827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jumpitorloseit/pseuds/jumpitorloseit
Summary: Loretta felt like she understood Sammy in a way that Troy and Ben couldn’t. She didn’t, of course, relate to how he was hurting, but Loretta knew a thing or two about those suffer in silence types. Loretta knew how to communicate with someone who didn’t want to be taken care of but needed to be anyway.





	Bridge Over Troubled Water

Loretta Krieghauser wasn’t a vain woman. She knew she wasn’t a looker like Ben Arnold’s Emily Potter, but that didn’t bother her any at all. She might have felt some insecurity in her younger years at her wide forehead, knobby knees, and gap tooth (Troy swore it was cute), but she had more important things to fuss over these days.

Loretta wasn’t a skeptic. No one who had grown up loving King Falls was, not really. Some people pretended to be, but there’s only so long you can live in a town like theirs and not see things for what they are. She knew her town was weird. But lately, she had a feeling her town was not only weird, but maybe a bit sick too. And she wanted to heal it and fix it right up.

Not that she had any interest in being a damn hero. She wasn’t cut out for that stuff, not like her fool husband and their friends. Loretta was a carer though. She fussed over the people she loved, made things right in her own ways. She might not be the one who shot UFOs out of the dang sky but she sure as heck was the one who made sure you had eaten enough carbs beforehand and had given you some peppermint tea to ease the pain of what you’d just experienced after.

Troy would have the whole town believing Loretta was the shots calling boss around the house, which she supposed wasn’t all wrong, but she led quietly. Loretta wasn’t a talker like Troy. When she could get up for it (or stay up for it?) she’d listen to the Sammy and Ben show in the mornings. She sure did like to hear those two boys yap. And back when her Troy was still on the force, she liked catching it when he called in. It was like catching her husband doing a cameo. Made her feel a bit famous even. She had no interest in calling in herself though, nothing to say. Not that Loretta didn’t have a lot going on, but she’d see those boys at some point later in the week (either for breakfast at theirs, or at Rose’s, or when they’d come over for dinner, Loretta wasn’t sure if Sammy had cooked for himself even once since moving to King Falls) and there was no sense airing her dirty laundry live on the radio when she could just tell them face to face.

Well anyway, King Falls was sick, and Loretta wasn’t a damn hero, but she was protective of her own. Like when Flicker Jensen broke into their house and tried to hurt her Troy and the only thing she could do was fight. Loretta was a carer not a fighter unless you made her be. And this weird town with its weird people housed her family and if she had to fight a little to heal it right, well then she’d figure it out.

Neither Loretta nor Troy had had great home lives growing up and Loretta couldn’t have babies so their biological family was tiny. But those radio station boys and the community that had grown from it, well, she supposed they were about as family as you got.

Loretta was just fine taking the backseat and making the tea when they rescued Emily. She knew her role and was happy to play, but she had a feeling King Falls had gotten even sicker since then. Their biggest problem wasn’t just the rainbow lights anymore and those problems had been about as big as a body could imagine. Loretta had a feeling that soon the town would make her fight to heal it. She couldn’t just be the carer next time when things really popped off.

But until then, during the interim, Loretta was content doing what she did best to make her town and her people better. Loretta would do what she could to make sure her family was ready for that fight and right now they sure as heck weren’t.

In fact, she figured her family was even sicker than her town right now. Especially that Sammy Stevens. Loretta felt like she understood Sammy in a way that Troy and Ben couldn’t. She didn’t, of course, relate to how he was hurting, but Loretta knew a thing or two about those suffer in silence types. Loretta knew how to communicate with someone who didn’t want to be taken care of but needed it anyway.

It was a whole twenty-three days before Sammy joined them all at Rose’s after that Sammiversary celebration that had gone so south. Loretta had insisted every day they go get breakfast, even with the Sammy and Ben show on a temporary hiatus until the station was rebuilt, just in case Sammy made an appearance. When Sammy was ready, Loretta -- Loretta and Troy -- would be there. So every morning there they were, Loretta and Troy, every damn day. Others would cycle in and out and join them. Sometimes they ate with Ron or the Jensens. Loretta loved catching up with Mary. Of course, Ben and Emily joined them when they weren’t with Sammy. Loretta knew that at some point Sammy would need reminding that he had a family and families have traditions and Rose’s was theirs.

Not that Loretta used to join them at breakfast at Rose’s all that often. She would on occasion, but usually if she saw Sammy and Ben after a show it would be on those mornings that Troy would invite them over to theirs. Sammy and Ben were Troy’s best friends, but they were also hers too. Never had she gone to Rose’s so often as she did those weeks following May 1st.

The day Sammy finally joined them, looking more tired than she had ever seen him (which was saying something considering he hosted an AM radio show that ran so late at night you weren’t sure if you should call it early) they had a larger crowd than normal. Not that anyone had really been expecting him that day, not really. They just all came, as if called by an unknown force that it was the day Sammy would suddenly need a morning that could pretend to be routine.

The Jensens had come, stating that the kids had spent the night at the grandparents, Emily and Ben had come in with Sammy -- Troy and Loretta, Ron, Reagan, and even Archie Simmons, who had walked in just to grab some pie to go (although why in the world that man needed a blueberry pie at 7:30 in the morning was anybody’s guess) had spotted them and forced them to add a seat for him, they all came that morning. She knew Sammy wasn’t done hurting, wouldn’t be done hurting for a long long time, but she could just tell that there was some part of him, tiny though it might have been, that was a bit pleased to have his family gathered. Loretta was glad to have given him that little thing, any little bit that could add just a bit of that fight back in him.

Loretta looked around that table (Rosie had been keeping the ten top open for them every day) and felt a rather large surge of affection for these folks. She felt such love for Ben whose arm was slung around Miss Potter’s shoulders but kept throwing concerned looks Sammy’s way, worry etched into every line in his face. She felt love for the Jensens who were slowly, but surely working on repairing a marriage that had been through more than those two damn good people deserved. She felt it for Troy, of course, who looked like he was just bursting with hope that his best buddy had finally left Ben’s apartment. She didn’t really feel much for Archie, though it was sweet of him to join them. She thought he was too much of a gossip and Loretta didn’t really entertain that nonsense. (Loretta also preferred bigger dogs, insensitive though it may be, Loretta believed those pomchis to be freakier aliens than the ones piloting those damn rainbow lights.)

But mostly in that moment, Loretta felt so much affection for Sammy, who she would have normally considered rather broad but was so small that day, and what she wouldn’t give to be able to reach across that table and give him the biggest darned hug he’d ever gotten, but she knew he wasn’t looking for that kind of care right then, so she settled for reaching across Troy and Ben and giving his hand a squeeze and a pat. She could have sworn she saw a ghost of a smile on his face at that.

So no, Loretta’s family wasn’t quite ready for a fight and her town was a bit sick. But Loretta knew how to toughen these people up, she’d do it with casseroles delivered every day to what was quickly being considered Ben AND Sammy’s apartment. She’d do it by asking Emily Potter for book recommendations (that Loretta might not ever read) because Emily enjoyed picking out just the right book for a friend. She’d even do it by stopping Ben Arnold from grabbing anything from a high shelf and doing it for him, with a wink because she was nearly a head taller than him and giving Ben grief was a good normal everyone needed a healthy dose of these days. She’d sure as heck do it by campaigning hard and getting that damn monster Gunderson out of the sheriff seat. Loretta would do it little by little by reminding Sammy Stevens what a good family he had.

When this sick town finally made them fight, they’d be ready goddammit, Loretta would take care of them until they were.

**Author's Note:**

> in my headcanon, Loretta's "the one"


End file.
